The Kremlin said today that Russia would never discuss exchanging Ukrainian territories it has seized for areas controlled by Kiev in Russia's Kursk region, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Guardian newspaper that he intends to offer Russia a territory swap to end the war, including areas controlled by Kiev in Russia's Kursk region.
“We will exchange some territories for others”, Zelensky said, adding that he did not know which part of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine he would ask for in return. “I don't know, we'll see. "However, all our territories are important, there are no priority ones," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian army would push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, where Kiev launched a lightning offensive last August and seized significant territory that Russia is still fighting to regain.
Peskov said Moscow categorically rejected any proposals for territory swaps. "This is impossible," the spokesman said at his daily news conference, adding: "Russia has never discussed and will not discuss exchanging its territory." Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russians at his annual news conference in December that Russian troops would certainly push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, but declined to comment on when that would happen, Reuters reported. Russia controls just over 20 percent of Ukraine's territory, or 112,000 square kilometers, while Ukraine controls nearly 450 square kilometers in western Russia's Kursk region, according to open-source battlefield data. Last year, Russian forces advanced into Ukraine at their fastest pace since 2022, the first year of the war, but the gains came amid heavy, if undisclosed, losses in manpower and equipment.